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{ program notes lavishly ornamented music, and it has been suggested that he may have designed this aria for the formidable skills of Dresden’ s leading female singer, Faustina Bordoni.
The four-part chorus“ Gratias agimus tibi” is a spectacular display of Bach’ s contrapuntal mastery: a fugue with entrances by the various voices spaced very closely together and toward the end thrillingly augmented by the fugal entrances of the trumpets.
Among the various solo numbers that fill the center of the Gloria,“ Quoniam tu solus sanctus” for the bass soloist stands out for its ingenious instrumentation. To compliment his deep-voiced singer, Bach chose a regal horn over a growling trio of bassoons.
The Gloria section closes splendidly with“ Cum Sancto Spiritu,” a rhythmically exciting dance in D Major. This text was traditionally set as a fugue, and Bach creates a virtuoso one here, gilded with fast, relentless coloratura passages placing athletic demands on both singers and orchestra.
Credo The declaration of orthodox Christian belief as found in the Nicene Creed forms the Mass’ s centerpiece. Bach roots its opening chorus in ancient tradition with the tenors intoning the Gregorian chant associated with the Credo; this then becomes the subject of an elegant fugue set over a steady walking bass line. All these musical elements evoke the centuries of unchanging Christian faith.
In the Credo’ s heart, an extraordinary trio of choruses describe Christ’ s becoming a mortal man, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection to eternal life. In Donald Francis Tovey’ s words, the“ Et incarnatus”“ for simplicity, depth, and mystery cannot be surpassed.” The descending lines of the choral voices correspond to Christ’ s descent from Heaven, and the beautiful drooping phrases of the violins foretell his death.
The heart-wrenching“ Crucifixus” with its painful dissonances is a recasting of music Bach wrote decades before in 1714 while serving at the Weimar court. Its form is a passacaglia: music created over a repeating bass pattern, in this case a throbbing descent by half steps that we hear at the beginning. The music gradually drops to the depths of the singers’ ranges: a depiction of Christ’ s body being lowered into the grave.
“ Et resurrexit” then immediately explodes with trumpets and drums joining the voices in a celebratory, high-speed dance.
The fast section of the Credo,“ Confiteor” contains the most dramatic moment in the B Minor Mass: a crisis of fear before the unknown realm of death in which Bach reaches harmonically far beyond his times. At the words“ Et expecto,” the music’ s confident forward pace falters, and the harmonies grope their way through a world of strange— shockingly so for the 1740s— key modulations. But this crisis passes, and the music ultimately embraces the hope of resurrection in exuberant D-Major splendor.
Sanctus The brilliance of this music is surpassed in the Sanctus that follows. The chorus is now increased to six parts to convey the awe and majesty of God’ s holiness. The music sways like censors before the high altar. Underneath the other singers’ rolling melismas, the basses intone a mighty descending theme like the tolling of cathedral bells. The following“ Osanna” increases the vocal parts yet again to eight, deployed in antiphonal call-and-response choirs.
A more intimate moment is the poignantly lovely penultimate“ Agnus Dei” for the alto soloist, which Bach adapted from an aria in his Ascension Oratorio of 1735. For the final“ Dona nobis pacem,” composers often brought back music heard earlier in the Mass, and that is exactly what Bach chooses to do: reprising the effulgent fugal music of the Gloria’ s chorus of thanks“ Gratias agimus tibi.” It brings this monumental Mass setting to a gloriously affirmative conclusion in D Major.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, three oboes( including oboe d ' amores), two bassoons, one horn, three trumpets, timpani, organ, and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright © 2016
Matthew Kleiser‘ 17
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May – June 2016 | Overture 27